Goldman is "too big to be prosecuted"

Why would anyone listen to a stock analyst about legal matters?

We've got to get over this "too big to fail" bullshit.

Like a big-ass pimple that gets so huge it turns into an infected boil ... yes, it's initially painful to lance that boil, but just leaving it alone enables it to grow infected and spread its poison throughout the body.

Let's cut our losses and lance this boil before it gets any worse.

That is the big flaw in new financial regulation. It's inconceivable that we would simply wind down JP Morgan if it were to fail Of course the Fed would bail them out.

Where do I start?

One for riversider.

Why should I listen to a cream cheese hoarder to stay committed to a nyc coop? When the data indicate you got time to sell and hoard some cash while the coops flounder for several years.

For $.10bjmatt.

I wanna lance ever coop president in nyc. Thankfully unLike a pimple, these nasty human scum self select to be the biggest douches of nycers.

I'm not trying to win an argument, and if you guys think this analyst is not worth bothering with, that's fine.

I just find it staggering that anyone -- anyone -- who is an adult, and an American, and gainfully employed in the financial services industry, would actually suggest that criminals who are really big should be held immune from prosecution, just because they are really big.

George Washington would have shot a guy for saying that. Hell, he probably did shoot guys for saying that. (Only the big criminals in his day were "royal.")

GG,

The United States has officially become a Plutocracy.

The wealthy and the financial industry now command unparalleled influence and power in this country - the most in our recent history since the early 20th century. But instead of taking anti-trust steps as they did to dissolve Standard Oil back in 1911, we are moving the opposition direction and helping the financial industry consolidate greater control over our economy.

The very fact that they are looking to settle the "robo signing" mortgage fraud epidemic - instead of holding the banks and bankers criminally responsible for their fraudulent acts (the financial documents and their testimony to judges) - is a clear sign that the rule of law and its prosecution DOES NOT apply to the rich and influential. Attorney Generals countrywide are ignoring the violation of the sanctity of property titles and essentially are ignoring decades of modern property law precedent. Meanwhile, if you try to violate any related financial or real estate laws as a middle class citizen, you will be held accountable to fullest extent of the law.

The reality is that the financial industry and those whose fortunes are vested with it have not only been able to violate all sorts of rules and laws (even the laws they helped write themselves), but have either influenced, bribed or blackmailed the political and judicial system into either ignoring the violations or modifying the rules and laws ex post facto.

The system is broken. Greed and the financial orgy that took place 2002-2007 has structured our economy to be utterly dependent on the financial oligarchy that helped create this mess in the first place. Unfortunately, nothing short of a political revolution or natural disaster is going to change what is unfolding in front of our eyes. The sad part is that the powers that be will probably be the ones to take authoritarian measures to maintain the status quo and already have via such complex legislation such as the Patriot Act (which no Congressperson has really read) or the "financial reform" Dodd-Frank Bill (which also is completely uncomprehensible but will be exploited to the fullest by financial institutions).

I had said said this before:

We need to stop extending and pretending and accept the ugly state of our financial house of cards.

We should break apart the major banks into regional ones and limit their size and operations. We should not allow other banks to operate in the US or with US companies until they take the same decentralizing and anti-trust measures. (You do realize how many foreign banks the FED lent money to during the crisis... that should never happen again.)

But no one wants to do this because it would mean massive losses for very wealthy RE holders and investors in the market.

Too bad.

These "sophisticated" investors have been spared the real-world consequences of taking on too much risk. But instead of taking the pain, they have demonstrated that the only thing they are truly sophisiticated at is manipulating the system and cheating their way into even greater profits.

Unfortunately, this has become "the American Way" of doing business.

Amen, Memito.

This is tough.
I do understand but do not agree with Geithner's logic about settling with the Banks. If we prosecute and fine them the result is more bail-out. But two things do strike me. One with all the greed and apparent bad acts one hears about these last several years what's absent are the prosecutions against individuals? This is absurd, nobody is guilt of anything?
And we will not end Geithner's dilemma until we break up those too big to fail institutions. When we broke up Standard Oil the result was greater than the one company. We need to do so again.

This is where the news media needs to do their job and let everyone know with the same bombarding stories that they do on lesser issues. With that, they need to fully profile the persons at the top who are getting away with this, not a company name. This way, when they become famous and recognizable, these sad creeps will not have the autonomy to go wherever they want. It could be dangerous for them and that would be better than nothing. If this story dies, it would be yet another American tragedy. Sadly, the later will probably happen. I mean, who remembers the people who were involved in the savings and loan disaster of twenty years ago?

"One with all the greed and apparent bad acts one hears about these last several years what's absent are the prosecutions against individuals?"

pay attention people, lucille is not all fun and games. that's right, no individuals are guilty of being bad. "wall street", "bankers", are bad

hitler gained his following of frustrated disenfranchised ordinary people in the beerhalls.

"In a rather spectacular trial in which Hitler endeavored to turn the tables and put democracy and the Weimar Republic on trial as traitors to the German people, he was convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment."

his party was banned for treason

"On 1 April (**1930**)Hannover enacted a law banning the Hitlerjugend (the Hitler Youth), and Goebbels was convicted of high treason at the end of May. Bavaria banned all political uniforms on 2 June, and on 11 June Prussia prohibited the wearing of SA brown shirts and associated insignia. The next month Prussia passed a law against its officials holding membership in either the NSDAP or KPD. Later in July, Goebbels was again tried, this time for ‘public insult’, and fined. The government also placed the army officers on trial for 'forming national socialist cells'."

"Against this violent backdrop, Hitler's party gained a shocking victory in the Reichstag, obtaining 107 seats (18.3%, 6,406,397 votes). The Nazis became the second largest party in Germany. In Bavaria the party gained 17.9% of the vote, though for the first time this percentage was exceeded by most other provinces: Oldenburg (27.3%), Braunschweig (26.6%), Waldeck (26.5%), Mecklenburg-Strelitz (22.6%), Lippe (22.3%) Mecklenburg-Schwerin (20.1%), Anhalt (19.8%), Thuringen (19.5%), Baden (19.2%), Hamburg (19.2%), Prussia (18.4%), Hessen (18.4%), Sachsen (18.3%), Lubeck (18.3%) and Schaumburg-Lippe (18.1%)."

"On March 10, 1931, with street violence between the Rotfront and SA spiralling out of control, breaking all previous barriers and expectations, Prussia re-enacted its ban on brown shirts. Days after the ban SA-men shot dead two communists in a street fight, which led to a ban being placed on the public speaking of Goebbels, who side-stepped the prohibition by recording speeches and playing them to an audience in his absence."

"Ernst Röhm, in charge of the SA, put Count Micah von Helldorff, a convicted murderer and vehement anti-Semite, in charge of the Berlin SA. The deaths mounted up, with many more on the Rotfront side, and by the end of 1931 the SA suffered 47 deaths, and the Rotfront recorded losses of approximately 80. Street fights and beer hall battles resulting in deaths occurred throughout February and April 1932, all against the backdrop of Adolf Hitler’s competition in the presidential election which pitted him against the monumentally popular Hindenburg. In the first round on 13 March, Hitler had polled over 11 million votes but was still behind Hindenburg. The second and final round took place on 10 April: Hitler (36.8% 13,418,547) lost out to Paul von Hindenburg (53.0% 19,359,983) whilst KPD candidate Thälmann gained a meagre percentage of the vote (10.2% 3,706,759)."

>>>>>>>>>>"At this time, the Nazi party had just over 800,000 card-carrying members."<<<<<<<<<

Three days after the presidential elections, the German government passed the Law for the Maintenance of State Authority, which banned the NSDAP and its paramilitaries. This action was largely prompted by details which emerged at a trial of SA men for assaulting unarmed Jews in Berlin. But after less than a month the law was repealed by Franz von Papen, Chancellor of Germany, on 30 May. Such ambivalence about the fate of Jews was supported by the culture of anti-Semitism that pervaded the German public at the time.[31]"

"Dwarfed by Hitler's electoral gains, the KPD turned away from legal means and increasingly towards violence. "

>>>>>>At the end of July, the Nazi party gained almost 14,000,000 votes, securing 230 seats in the Reichstag.<<<<<

"Hermann Göring, in his position of Reichstag president, asked that decisive measures be taken by the government over the spate in murders of national socialists. On 9 August, amendments were made to the Reichstrafgesetzbuch statute on 'acts of political violence', increasing the penalty to 'lifetime imprisonment, 20 years hard labour or death'. Special courts were announced to try such offences. When in power less than half a year later, Hitler would use this legislation against his opponents with devastating effect."

"With Germans who opposed Nazism failing to unite against it, Hitler soon moved to consolidate absolute power."

THE END

rinse, repeat

sorry
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler's_rise_to_power

Wow, Lucille. You've topped yourself and that ain't easy. I don't know what is more stunning: the illogic or the utter tastelessness of your post. Seems like a tie. Plus, what exactly is your point (assuming, perhaps stupidly, that there is one)?

oh i make it a point to never have a discernible point. it's all a big joke on you, midtownereast.

So long as you know your posts are pointless.

Also just making sure that you weren't drawing an analogy between bankers (many of whom, I admit, deserve fines and jail time) and the leader of a regime that killed millions.

I get it: saying that Wall Street screwed over everyone else is just like being a Nazi. Duh.

omg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lFAVLWJhpY

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_disability

You know the federal government is pathetic and corrupt when the only one willing to prosecute Goldman is the DA's office! Where are you SEC???? Where are you DOJ????

Goldman Sachs hit with subpoena from Manhattan DA: Will Wall St. fat cats face jail for '08 crisis?

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance has a fat new target: Wall Street titan Goldman Sachs, which got hit with a subpoena into its actions right before the 2008 credit collapse.

The subpoena stems from a scathing 639-page Senate report accusing Goldman of deliberately selling toxic mortgage-backed securities to unsuspecting clients, knowing the housing market was about to crash.

"It's very serious," said a law enforcement source who noted Thursday that Vance's office is "throwing resources at it."

http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2011/06/02/2011-06-02_goldman_sachs_hit_with_subpoena_from_manhattan_da_will_wall_st_fat_cats_face_jai.html

While we're posting wikipedia links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ad_hominem

The SEC is broke. They could certainly do a better job but make no mistake Congress won't let them self-fund, so they have to pick and chose carefully. Of course they could pull a New York Times and hack Fabrice Tourre's email.

http://blogs.reuters.com/felix-salmon/2011/06/01/did-the-nyt-hack-fabrice-tourres-email/

sorry...it is President Obama who is "too big to fail". Now that he and his advisors realize that the economy will not be on the mend in time for his re-election campaign, they will go after those responsible for the debacle in the first place. That is the only way that the electorate will be placated. Goldman and others will be made an example of so that Mr and Mrs voter will be lulled into voting for change you can believe in yet again.

Why is NY District Attorney attacking our Golden Egg? Goldman employs many here in NYC. And pays taxes. Let the Podunck, IA DA go after Goldman.

So what do those of you who didn't comment on the "Too Big To Fail" HBO movie thread here on se, think now?

Great line in the movie: Who at The Fed didn't come out of Goldman?